Data say vaccines, masks
help pursuit of happiness
The vaccination and mask fights rage on. What is at stake? Life or liberty or pursuit of happiness? It really strongly depends on your age and health status. The virus is widespread across the United States. It is not going away. You will not escape infection at some point in the future.
The coronavirus vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control, reduces cases by a factor of 4.5 across age groups. About 5% of unvaccinated people will get covid per year. Only 1.6% of vaccinated people will get covid per year. The shot may produce 24 hours of feeling poorly. A mild case of covid will last a week or 10 days. A shot gives you more days to pursue happiness. Less virus circulation in the community reduces your risk of getting infected.
The coronavirus vaccination reduces hospitalizations by a factor of 14.3 for 18- to 49-year-olds, 10.9 for 50- to 64-year-olds, and 7.7 for those over 65. Vaccination reduces hospital demand significantly.
If you are 18 to 49, vaccinated, and then get covid, 1.1% will be hospitalized. If unvaccinated, 3.5% will be hospitalized. Those aged 50 to 64 have a 10.1% hospitalization rate vs. 4.5% if vaccinated. If you are vaccinated and over 65, 12% will be hospitalized vs. 20% unvaccinated.
You should get vaccinated. Who wants to spend a week in the hospital with the attendant bills? Not much liberty in a hospital bed.
The death rate from auto accidents is 1 per 10,000. For comparison, If you are 18 to 40, your risk of death from covid-19 if unvaccinated is 20 per 10,000. Vaccination reduces this to 5 per 10,000. If you are 50 to 64, the death rate when infected is 168 per 10,000 if unvaccinated, and 46 per 10,000 if vaccinated. Over 65, the death rate is 693 per 10,000 if unvaccinated and falls to 332 per 10,000 cases if vaccinated. Do you wear a seat belt? You should get vaccinated.
Should you wear a mask? Yes. Both to protect yourself and to protect others where community transmissions high. Is community transmission high? The hospitals are full, so yes. Masks work. Contact tracing at St. Louis University showed a reduction in positive tests after exposure to an infected person from 32% when the exposure was unmasked to 7% when both parties wore a mask.
What about children? Children 0 to 17 have very low case numbers so far. The were protected by widespread school closure last year. We will see how this year goes. Aged 0 to 2 had death rates per case of 2 per 10,000; aged 5 to 11, 0.6 per 10,000; aged 12 to 15, 1 per 10,000; and aged 15 to 17, 1.3 per 10,000. These are much lower than the rest of the population but similar to auto fatality rates where seatbelts are required. With high community transmission rates, avoiding masks seems risky. By December we will have studies comparing masked schools to unmasked schools.
Mark Weaver
Fayetteville
An end to 'murdering'
I see that as of midweek, 657,114 people have died of covid-19. Just on Wednesday, the killers infected 170,000 and 1,800 died nationwide.
These terrorists who refuse to be inoculated are killing indiscriminately. Their greatest joy is killing someone who has been vaccinated. My question to the murderers is, how many Americans do you plan to murder before getting inoculated and stop murdering. In two days you have murdered as many as occurred on 9/11. Surely you have a number of Americans you plan to murder.
You do not have the right to kill. Lately small children are being murdered. The Lord Jesus said "What you do to the least of us, you have done to me."
The governor says he disagrees with the president, that the killer terrorist has the right to kill. Our economy is being interrupted by these terrorists. This must stop.
Lyndon Edge
Rogers